


To Serve and Stand

by Diary



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Season/Series 06, Bechdel Test Pass, Canon Disabled Character, Friendship/Love, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Late Night Conversations, Loyalty, POV Multiple, Post-Episode AU: s06e01 The Red Woman, Post-Season/Series 05 AU, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-06-04 11:46:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6656572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diary/pseuds/Diary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A look at the relationships between the Brienne, Pod, Sansa, and Theon. Complete.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Serve and Stand

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Game of Thrones.

Jaime’s words about Lady Catelyn having a giant, mute, tow-headed plank following her around repeatedly echo in her head, and Brienne thanks the seven for Pod. The poor boy might soon have his heart broken, but at least, for now, someone is doing right by Lady Sansa.

He’s carefully brushing Lady Sansa’s hair and listening with an attentive expression while she softly talks.

Glancing over, he gives Brienne a tentative smile.

Nodding, she gets up and resumes walking around the forest.

…

In the morning, Pod gives the biggest portion of the deer Brienne slayed to Lady Sansa and presents Brienne with more than she needs. What’s left is barely enough for him and the Greyjoy traitor.

A broken man who nevertheless helped Lady Sansa, she reminds herself.

“Pod, take some of mine and give some more to Lord Theon.”

Looking hesitant and slightly mutinous, he says, “There’s enough for both of us, my lady,” and slides some of his portion over to Greyjoy.

“Pod, don’t argue, and take some of mine. None of us will go hungry, if I can possibly help it.”

Lady Sansa reaches over and touches Pod. “If not for Theon, Lady Brienne wouldn’t have been able to find me in time. She knows better than any of us how much food we each need.”

Pod accepts the meat from Brienne but not without shooting another dark look at Greyjoy.

…

While Sansa is relieving herself, Brienne says, “Podrick.”

He jumps and hurries over from the horse he was tending to. “My lady?”

Quietly, she tells him, “I don’t like having Greyjoy around, either, but he’s a eunuch who’s been broken in mind. Whatever his past sins, if even more than what he’s suffered is required, let any gods out there deal with it. For now, don’t be jealous, and don’t be cruel. Let Lady Sansa cling to him, and him to her. It might help her heal from all she’s suffered.”

Giving her a puzzled look, he repeats, “Jealous, my lady?”

Sighing, she says, “Even if she is the very last Stark, the Stark name will continue to be a powerful one until she dies. Even when she marries, the Stark name will continue to hold. And if she has surviving children, it will continue to live on. She’s a beautiful, sweet woman. Keep being kind to her, enjoy her smile and the attention she pays you, but don’t let yourself believe you could ever hope to be a proper suitor to her, Podrick.”

Sansa and Greyjoy reappear, and seeing the former is carrying a pair of boots, Pod hurries over to take them.

…

Watching Pod and Greyjoy obstinately training together, Brienne mutters, “Hopeless.”

“Will you tell me about my mother?”

The soft voice startles her, and Brienne jumps. Turning, she sees Sansa sitting on a log and warming her hands over the fire.

Nodding, Brienne sits down across from her. “You knew her better than I did, my lady. Her love for all of her children was undeniable. She had a woman’s strength, and she used it to do what she knew to be right and propel herself through hard times.”

“A woman’s strength? What is that?”

“She gave birth to you, your sister, and your brothers. She tended to the wounded. She listened to the council of others, but she wasn’t mindlessly governed by the words, thoughts, and wishes of others.”

Nodding, Sansa bites her lip and says with frighteningly dead eyes, “She was a virgin when she married.”

Making a private vow to one day do to Ramsay what she did to Stannis, Brienne takes a breath. “Lady Sansa, look at me.”

Sansa does.

Holding the wounded eyes with her own, Brienne declares, “Whatever anyone did to you, whatever has been taken from you, you must not let them win. Be strong, be happy, let no one say that what unworthy people did to you makes you unworthy. I know that it might not be easy to do this. I know some of the pain might stay with you forever, and I know there are those who won’t make it easy for you, but you are Sansa Stark, daughter of Catelyn Tully and Eddard Stark, and what I see sitting before me is a kind, clever woman, so very young, who has managed to survive what would break many fully grown men.”

Looking away, Sansa curls into herself, and to Brienne’s horror, starts to cry.

“But I’m not,” she says. “Arya was so kind. She was interested in all people, and I was only interested in certain ones. I just wanted to wear pretty dresses, dance, and have beautiful babies. I have no head for numbers. Everyone always says I’m just a stupid, silly girl, and that’s what I am.”

Feeling helpless, Brienne makes sure there’s no anger in her tone. “Why? Because you were like many little girls? I admit, my lady, I never wanted those things, and I was interested in people my father wished I weren’t, but that doesn’t make me or your sister better than you, just as it doesn’t make you better than us. Your mother told me you were always so cheerful and polite when interacting with people while your sister could be rude and crude to those she deemed unworthy. I don’t have much of a head for numbers, either.”

“My lady, please. What can I say to make you see? King Joffrey was a horrible king, and whether he was boy or man when he died, he was a horrible person, as well. He hurt you, and so did others at court, but now, he’s dead, and you aren’t. Ramsay- you’d be a better judge, but from what I’ve heard, he was even worse. Yet, despite that, you are here, now, and he can’t touch you. He never will again, I swear it. To survive men like that- no one could be that lucky. It would take bravery, determination, and ingenuity.”

Letting out a shuddery breath, Sansa looks back into her eyes, and despite the still flowing tears, Brienne is relieved to see a cool fire, much like Lady Catelyn’s eyes once held, within.

“I can see, now, why my lady mother valued you, Lady Brienne,” Sansa tells her. “I don’t blame you for her death, and I know she wouldn’t want you to blame yourself. Please, know that I am truly grateful to have someone like you protecting me.”

Brienne bows her head. “My lady.”

…

Brienne has been lacing her own boils and tending to her own bruises for years, but when Pod joined her, despite her assuring him doing the former most certainly wasn’t part of being a squire, he somehow ended up taking over for her.

“Lady Sansa seems less sad since you talked to her, my lady.”

“Good,” she says. Biting down on her hand to keep from screaming, she grips the log tightly with her other.

When he’s done, she lets out a breath.

“Thank you, Pod.”

He nods, gives her a small smile, and starts bandaging her foot.

There’s silence until, suddenly, he blurts out, “I don’t desire her, my lady. I’m a servant. She just- has more to do for me t-than you do.”

“True,” she agrees.

Privately, she knows it’s puppyish devotion to a beautiful, young woman that makes him so eager to serve, but it’s not her place to say so.

“Lady Sansa was raised in a huge residence with numerous servants. Even with Joffrey, she had you and others. It’s good she’s not being completely deprived of everything she once knew and had.”

“Yes, my lady.”

 …

“Why don’t you pick some for Lady Brienne, Pod?”

Gods, please, no, Brienne prays.

“Flowers don’t make Lady Brienne happy, my lady. Well, except this red one with green leafs. The juice prevents her armour from rusting and keeps the lice out of her hair.”

Unable to help herself, Brienne smiles at Pod.

He smiles back.

“Old Nan used to tell me about this flower…”

Pod listens with interest and Greyjoy with sadness, she sees.

…

When they get near the wall, she pulls Pod aside one night.

“If Lord Snow is willing to do right by her, you need to stay with her.”

A brief look crosses his face. “I’ve told you, my lady-”

“I’m not trying to get rid of you, Pod,” she interrupts. “My vow was to get both Stark girls somewhere safe. I also need to kill Ramsay Snow. Or Bolton. Whatever his name is, now. If Lord Snow will take her in, this is some place safe. I still need to find out what exactly happened to Arya and their brothers. If there’s any chance any of them are still alive- If anything should happen to me, you need to take my place and always be there to shield Sansa and serve her in whatever other way she might need.”

Seeing he can’t find an argument, she adds, “You’ve been a better squire than I’ve given you proper acknowledgement for. Train with the men at the wall. Become a knight. Make sure the vow I made to Lady Catelyn Stark is upheld.”

“Yes, my lady,” is his almost soundless response.

…

Pod doesn’t say anything when Greyjoy sits down next to him.

“She’s not a knight.”

Frostily, Pod retorts, “Yes, she is.”

“She says herself she isn’t.”

“In all technicality, she isn’t,” Pod acknowledges. “But in every way that matters, Ser Brienne is.”

“That’s why you call her ‘my lady’.”

“That’s what she wants.”

“She doesn’t want much, does she,” Greyjoy comments. “Or she just wants things you can’t give her. A shame she’s not just a lady. Then, you could justify it.”

“Justify what?”

“Standing up for what you want,” Greyjoy answers, and then, before Pod can respond, drifts away.

…

Brienne notices Pod is following her, and sighing, she stops and turns.

“Pod, we discussed this.”

He visibly steels himself. “If he’s guilty of it, before he killed Lady Shae, Lord Tyrion was a great man. He helped people, my lady. You once said that all you ever wanted was to fight for a lord you believed in. I’ll never be much of a fighter, but I am good at serving people. All I want is to serve someone I believe in, and Lady Sansa is good, kind, and strong. I do believe in her. But she’s always going to have people. She draws them to her.”

“I truly don’t mean this how it might sound, but right now, all you have is me. And I believe in you more than I do her.” Kneeling down, he says, “Please, let me serve you, my lady.”

Do you have any idea what you’ve done, Jaime, she wonders. You did this for your brother, I did this for you, and for all Pod is horrified over this Shae woman’s death, your brother is the only one of us who ever truly did anything for Pod himself.

She can almost hear his lazy, careless voice suggesting, _It’s not too late to change that_.

For all Pod might believe in Brienne, he’d be happier with a mistress such as Sansa, she knows.

Yet, despite her knowing this, she’s dealt with people who knew she should do this and shouldn’t do that all her life, and she’s never appreciated it. Even the few times one of them happened to genuinely be right, she still saw it as, she had the right to make her own decisions and mistakes.

“Come along, then, Pod,” she finds herself saying. “Are you properly packed?”

Jumping up, he looks at her with gratitude etched on his face and begins showing her what all he has in his knapsack and giving suggestions on how they should load the horses.


End file.
